Joly-Lopez Zoé, Forczek Ewa, Vello Emilio, Hoen Douglas R, Tomita Akiko, Bureau Thomas E
Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Front Plant Sci. 2017 Nov 28;8:2027. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2017.02027. eCollection 2017.
Plant phenomics offers unique opportunities to accelerate our understanding of gene function and plant response to different environments, and may be particularly useful for studying previously uncharacterized genes. One important type of poorly characterized genes is those derived from transposable elements (TEs), which have departed from a mobility-driven lifestyle to attain new adaptive roles for the host (exapted TEs). We used phenomics approaches, coupled with reverse genetics, to analyze T-DNA insertion mutants of both previously reported and novel protein-coding exapted TEs in the model plant . We show that mutations in most of these exapted TEs result in phenotypes, particularly when challenged by abiotic stress. We built statistical multi-dimensional phenotypic profiles and compared them to wild-type and known stress responsive mutant lines for each particular stress condition. We found that these exapted TEs may play roles in responses to phosphate limitation, tolerance to high salt concentration, freezing temperatures, and arsenic toxicity. These results not only experimentally validate a large set of putative functional exapted TEs recently discovered through computational analysis, but also uncover additional novel phenotypes for previously well-characterized exapted TEs in .
植物表型组学为加速我们对基因功能以及植物对不同环境反应的理解提供了独特机遇，对于研究此前未被表征的基因可能尤为有用。一类表征不佳的重要基因是那些源自转座元件（TEs）的基因，这些转座元件已脱离由移动性驱动的生活方式，从而为宿主获得了新的适应性功能（驯化转座元件）。我们采用表型组学方法，并结合反向遗传学，来分析模式植物中先前报道的以及新的蛋白质编码驯化转座元件的T-DNA插入突变体。我们发现，这些驯化转座元件中的大多数发生突变都会导致表型变化，尤其是在受到非生物胁迫时。我们构建了统计多维表型图谱，并将其与每种特定胁迫条件下的野生型和已知胁迫响应突变系进行比较。我们发现，这些驯化转座元件可能在对磷限制、高盐浓度耐受性、冷冻温度和砷毒性的反应中发挥作用。这些结果不仅通过实验验证了最近通过计算分析发现的大量假定具有功能的驯化转座元件，还揭示了模式植物中先前已充分表征的驯化转座元件的其他新表型。
